Week 65: Getting a Ride with a Stranger

This week was alright, here goes nothing.  Tuesday we had our zone district meeting.  It was pretty good.  We were doing contacting role plays and they set up a metro contacting role play where we get on the 'metro' (a bunch of chairs in the gym) and contact the person.  I contacted Sister Parker who is an ASL missionary right now, so I got to use my sign language.  It made me really happy.  We actually had a kinda funny story getting to the church that morning.  We metroed up to the temple metro stop and were gonna get a ride from the French Elders but a car pulled and a couple people got out and then the driver said, you guys going to the temple?  Get in I'm headed that way.  So we were like, okay cool, a member is giving us a ride. We asked in the car, so are you a member?  And he was like, no, I'm actually Jewish.  Umm... What?  Then as he kept telling us about himself he told us he was married for twelve years and that didn't work out, and now he's been living with his partner for 15 years... So..  Yeah.  That was our ride to the church.  It was pretty fun!  He was really nice and cool.  Just a surprise.  

Wednesday was so awesome! I went on exchange with Elder Paul!  He was my district leader towards the start of my mission, and he's my zone leader now.  I took my vinyl player and we jammed out during lunch, then we went and did some work in their area.  We had an awesome dinner with a member, and went to an institute class too.  It was so much fun.  We jammed out to Coldplay.  It was the best.  

Thursday we went to Caesars for lunch, then had a lesson with A--.  Our lesson went well and he seemed happier and agreed to come to church.  Unfortunately he didn't end up showing up to church... 

 Friday we got pulled out of our area for 9/11.  Our whole zone went up to the farm.  Our mission has a farm area, and so we went and helped there.  We built a fence and did a corn maze.  It was super fun because I got to hang out with Elder Paul all day again!!  Then we came home and were required to stay in our apartments so we played some games together.  

Saturday morning we were out the door at 6:20 for our service project.  Our whole zone helped volunteer at a 5K for a charity that helps the blind.  It was fun.  We got there in our proselyting clothes an they gave us yellow tie dye volunteer shirts that we put on over our white shirts.  Then it rained the whole time... So...  We had stains on our shirts.. Yikes!!  We did get to do a lap around the Nats stadium which was super cool though! During the race a deaf and blind man with his interpreter were doing the race and I said hi to the interpreter and then the deaf and blind man wanted to talk to me so I got to do tactile signing with him!!! That's where when I sign he holds my wrist and feels what I'm signing
and then responds.  It was so freaking cool!!!  Oh my gosh!!!  

Then Sunday we went to church.  It was pretty good.  We talked about the word of wisdom, and home teaching.  Then we came home for lunch, and we're heading out to our lesson with R-- when she called and cancelled...  Sad panda.  But we'll meet with her this Sunday, and we have a lesson with a new investigator tonight!

Elder Sorensen

Week 64: Scripture Power

Really quick weekly amidst a crazy day!!  This week was pretty fun. We had a couple lessons.  One was with A-.  He was looking a little disheartened this week, but there's always such a visible change in his demeanor before and after we leave!  It's so fun to be able to work with him!  I love being able to share about the scriptures and see how it affects people's live so much.  After that we met with C-.  He's a recent convert and is super solid.  We've been sharing lots about the scriptures and our favorite scriptures and such to make sure he keeps his scripture reading habits solid.  We visited with Ceasar the assistant ward mission leader a few times this week which was fun.  Friday was super exciting!  For lunch we met up with Angel!  It was so good to see him and get to talk to him about home, and about how his two boys are doing on their missions, and just life. He showed me a video of him driving down state street and I almost started crying...  I miss home.  But it's not like.. Bad homesick, it's like... Motivating homesick.  I loved the tie you got me, mom and dad!! And Angel got me a BYU shirt, so I'm super spoiled this week. Then Saturday I was feeling pretty sick so we stayed in..  Sad panda.  Then Sunday was good.  We had church and fast Sunday was super fun.  Then after church went to Ceasars again with all the elders in our ward. And then we had our lesson with R-!  She is still doing so awesome!! I'm glad we get to teach her. Then when we were leaving we had to run to catch our bus!  It was craziness.  Then we slept.  Today has been lots of running around the city for tons of crazy fun.  I hope you had a fun week back home!  Love you guys!

Elder Sorensen

Week 63: Referrals & Lessons

This week’s email might be shorter cause I'm writing for a couple less days due to our p-day change this week!  Wednesday was really exciting.  We had three lessons and then a dinner.  Our first lesson was with a less active member who we had seen the week before.  It had been a while since the missionaries had visited him and he was feeling pretty down.  This week however he looked so much better, and I know it's because he read his scriptures and prayed during the week.  The change of his countenance was so visible and had such stark contrast from the week before.  It was awesome.  We shared another lesson with him and invited him to church.  Then we went to a recent convert's house and talked a little bit about our favorite parts of the Book of Mormon!  It was really fun.  Then we went to another less actives house and talked more about the Book of Mormon.  Then we went to our weekly dinner appointment. 

I think I explained this last week but just in case, there are 12 missionaries in our ward, so we all get fed together Wednesday nights, then have our ward correlation meeting. Dinner was good, but our ward mission leader didn't show up, and one of the other areas didn't show either...  So...  I happened to be the oldest mission age wise... which turned into me they being asked to run the meeting.  It was really weird.  We played get to know you games cause I'm new there.  

Thursday we broke out our bikes finally, went and did some service for Ceasar and he fed us lunch and dinner.  There's a huge hill right before his house, so it's a super fun bike ride.  It was good to help him. 

Then Friday Ceasar invited all the Elders over for lunch.  We were able to do our weekly planning session. We went super hard into this time because I really want to learn this area as quickly as possible, so we did it for almost 3 hours!!

Saturday was interesting.  We got a phone call from Sister Ellsworth saying they were down near Gallaudet and she wanted me to give her a blessing.  They came by and we did that, then we went and tried to contact some referrals for the rest of the night.  We ran into a person from Utah that just moved in down the hall from us.  We're not sure if she's a member or not, but she offered to feed us! Woot! One of the referrals lived right where there was this huge party happening, so we thought we'd try and contact people in there, but we got a really bad feeling about it the more we hung around and we got ourselves out of there pretty quick.  We tried contacting people for the rest of the night.  A lot people ask us for directions around the city.  It's pretty funny.  

Sunday we went to church, and were about to walk into sacrament meeting when WILLIAM from the singles ward walked by!!!  Jason Hinds was singing in sacrament meeting (another singles’ ward member) so William came to see him.  We got to hang out all during church, then as we were getting ready to go to Ceasar’s for dinner, Ceasar invited William as well!!  William also ran into a girl that was in one of his classes at BYU-I who I'll talk about later.  We went to dinner with William and all the elders and had tons of fun!  Next we had our lesson with R- our investigator. 

Our p-day plans were to sleep over at Derwood and hang out with Elder Reedy, but we had no idea how we were gonna make metro-ing up there on time and everything work.  As William was driving us to our lesson he came up with a great plan: the girl he knew from Idaho was with two friends and the needed a place to stay for the night, so they were gonna sleep over at his house, so while we were in our lesson he went and picked them up, then came back and picked us up, and dropped us off at home to get on the metro.  That worked out.

As we were walking the last little bit to R-‘s house a car pulled off to the side of the road in front of us and a member got out, gave us a referral and some cookies...  So I guess we were in the right place!! We had our lesson with her and she was solid as ever and is still right on schedule for baptism!  Finally, William came and got us took us to our apartment where we grabbed all our clothes and blankets, hopped on the metro and got picked by Elder Reedy and were in before 9:30. So everything worked out great!   Today we've mostly been playing Dominion and just hanging out.  I love you all!! Have a great week!

Elder Sorensen